Great masters of Dutch painting
In the XVII century. in Holland, the genres of portrait and still life, household and landscape painting, paintings devoted to mythological and biblical subjects are becoming popular.
Portrait painting was especially popular – individual and group images. The Dutch burghers – the new masters of life – wanted to capture themselves in a representative appearance, testifying to their material wealth and high position in society. The demand for such portraits was huge.
The traditions of group portraiture, which developed in the north of the country, date back to the 15th century. Later they began to order large canvases, which depicted solemn meetings of various communities and associations (rifle companies, trustees of hospitals and almshouses, shop foremen and scientific societies). Such portraits adorned the walls of departmental offices or meeting rooms.
The most famous portrait painter of this time was Frans Hals (between 1581 / 85-1666). “Group portrait of officers of the rifle company of St. George” is one of the artist’s best works. Once every three or four years in Haarlem, the hometown of Hals, it was customary to recruit rifle companies from local residents to guard the city. The artist himself also served as a private in the rifle company of St. George. At the end of the service, a solemn banquet was held in honor of the officers, which could last for several days. Such an important event was often captured on a large canvas.
The officers of the rifle company, engaged in leisurely conversation, sit decorously around a large table. They are wearing black uniforms with bright scarves over their shoulders. Ruffled collars and cuffs shining with white, spectacularly cropped wide-brimmed hats, precious sword hilts and long halberd shafts are surprisingly picturesque.
The artist was faced with a difficult task: to combine 12 figures in one composition, in the most compressed space! At the same time, it was necessary to preserve the ease of their poses, to convey the cheerful atmosphere of the festive feast. Many of the participants address the viewer directly with a glance or gesture. In the center, in the most honorable place, sits a burly company commander with a glass in his hand. There was not enough space for the little warrant officer at the table, but he stands proudly on his hips and looks straight, inviting the audience to admire his magnificent uniform.
The individual portraits of Hals are also remarkable. In the most ordinary character, he knew how to see the interesting and the most expressive. One of the artist’s contemporaries rightly wrote:
“Khals, possessing … a special, unusual manner of writing, surpasses all others, since such a sharpness and vitality, such a force, is embedded in his painting that in many works he seems to challenge nature itself.”
The swift strokes of his brush seem to rush after the elusive moment, rushing to capture the most characteristic moments: a sudden look and immersion in one’s own thoughts, a fleeting smile and unrestrained laughter, sincere emotion and emotional impulse …
By your wondrous will of a painter
, a long century was presented to these people.
Blush on the cheeks, did not weaken the muscles,
The outlines of the eyelids did not change.
The arrows are feasting. Syndics decide
How to tax the goods,
And respect almost inspires The
imperturbable fat brewer.
And these burghers, merchants, old women,
That are put on display by Hals,
They pretend to be deaf,
And they see everything, looking straight at us …
/IN. Elsner. “Portraits of Khalsa” /
The genre of everyday life also developed quite successfully in Dutch painting. On the one hand, artists poeticized the natural flow of everyday life, and on the other, they strove to depict grotesque, acute and lively situations. Scenes from the private life of middle and small burghers, the urban poor and the peasantry, festivities and entertainment, musical concerts, card games of the “merry society” become favorite subjects of everyday painting. Often these paintings symbolically convey the common truths of burgher morality: ice water is associated with a moderate lifestyle, the monkey is associated with the devil, trapping revelers and merry fellows, the geographical map on the wall gives the home scene a “worldwide” scale. Art historian E. I. Rotenberg rightly noted:
“The merit of the Dutch was that they were the first to create a new, more chamber type of genre composition, choosing for this a small, so-called cabinet, format. This format, designed for a special principle of viewing and getting used to the picture, turned out to be the most favorable and effective for scenes of real life … “
The artists who worked in this genre are called the Little Dutchmen (Jan Steen (1626-1679), Peter de Hooch (1629-1684), Gerard Terborch (1617-1681), Willem Heda, Peter Claes, etc.), in contrast to those who worked in large formats, as well as from Rembrandt and F. Hals.
The Dutch entered the history of world painting as unsurpassed masters of still life (fr. “Dead nature”). This genre in the Dutch language is more consistent with the word “styleleven” – “motionless life”, which much more accurately conveys the essence of the genre. The “quiet life of things” has always attracted Dutch painters. But if earlier the image of objects of the real world had a purely symbolic meaning and was reduced to their simple enumeration, now it shows the viewer a single ensemble with a hidden edifying meaning.
Such paintings were in great demand, they were intended to decorate the interiors of dining rooms, reminding the owners of the house about gastronomic joys and beautiful table setting. “Breakfasts”, “desserts”, flower bouquets and allegorical compositions became the favorite subjects. Over time, still lifes turned into spectacular and multicolored paintings, which are grandiose pyramids of exquisite expensive dishes and exotic fruits. Willem Heda (1594 – c. 1680) and Peter Claesz (c. 1597 – c. 1661) are the most famous artists of this genre.
Popular in 17th century Dutch painting. the landscape also becomes. The originality of this genre and its theme were determined by the peculiarity of the nature of this northern country – its flat expanses and the proximity of the sea. Artists refused to depict ideal ecumenical landscapes. They were interested in the surrounding routine, the naturalness of life situations. Landscapes really become “Nature’s Mirror”.
Marine painters specialized in accurately depicting ships of the famous Dutch navy. They skillfully conveyed the riot of the sea and the vast expanse of the sea, moist sea air, a gentle breath of breeze and the beauty of the high cloudy sky. Dunes, country roads, poor peasant huts, lonely trees felled by a storm, mills with a wide flap of wings, stormy waterfalls, canals and ice-bound ponds with running figures of skaters become the main objects of depiction of landscape painters. Among them the best were Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Jacob Ruisdael (1628-1682).
Jan Wermer (1632-1675) was called “the greatest magician and magician of painting” during his lifetime. Later, in the middle of the 19th century, he was rightfully ranked among the founders of plein air (French plein air – open air) painting, reproducing the slightest changes in the air environment due to sunlight and the state of the atmosphere. Indeed, the light in Vermeer’s paintings (about 40 of them have survived) barely perceptibly glides along the walls and facades of houses, the surfaces of objects, flows around the figures, shimmering in hundreds of the finest shades. The artist’s brushes are subject to both the blush and freshness of a girl’s face, velvety skin, and the roughness of old brickwork, the bright emerald green of curly ivy and the shimmering reflections of the mirror water space. Under the influence of light, the paints applied to the canvas begin to sound with special power and expressiveness.
Vermeer was a recognized colorist: at first he applied paints with thick and soft strokes, and at the end of the work, barely touching the canvas with a thin brush, he gave liveliness and grace to clear forms and sharp lines. One gets the impression that the artist does not mix colors, but uses only rich colors. But this feeling is erroneous: dozens of different nuances are dissolved in each of its colors, creating an enchanting color scheme. Wermeer was especially fond of lemon yellow, cornflower blue, pearl gray, white and black tones. Depending on the sunlight, the airy atmosphere, they play and shimmer with hundreds of shades and highlights.
The compositional solution of Vermer’s paintings is also interesting. He builds them as clearly and clearly as possible. Its interiors are not overloaded with many minor details, there is nothing superfluous in them. From the objects located in the foreground, the viewer’s eye invariably slides into the depths of the picture, where the main plot action unfolds. One or two figures are placed in a cozy closed interior, where the hustle and bustle of city streets are not heard. People are busy with their usual business: courteous gentlemen slowly drink wine, scientists are immersed in an atmosphere of scientific research, the painter works intently at the easel, maids are busy with the housework, noble ladies weigh pearls, try on a precious necklace. Young beautiful girls play music, read love letters, weave lace. In their images, the author is not interested in fleeting moments, like in Hals, but in the complex,subtle state of mind. Their daily life takes place in a slow and measured rhythm.
“The moment turns into eternity for them, the hand of the clock stops running … They don’t know any worries, no worries, they don’t know violent passions, their thoughts don’t go much further than what surrounds them … the characters feel good only in cozy interiors, separated from the outside world … “(V. N. Lazarev)
The Lacemaker by Vermer is permeated with amazing cordiality. A young girl sits at a table on which needlework items are laid out. She is absorbed in her favorite pastime. In her left hand, the girl holds bobbins with red threads, with her right hand she deftly pulls them and, with the help of pins, pins the lace to the pillow according to the applied pattern. Sunlight seems to caress the canvas, brightly reflecting on the girl’s dress and collar. In the small format of the picture (24×21 cm), the artist managed to convey the modest charm of the heroine.
Among the true masterpieces is Vermer’s painting “The Street”, which depicts a typical urban landscape, a view from the windows of the artist’s house. Poor is this quiet corner of his hometown and beloved city, which has become for him a symbol of his homeland. In everything, traces of the industrious and caring hands of its inhabitants are visible: the sand of the sidewalk was carefully swept out and smoothed with a rake, the low porch paved with multi-colored tiles was washed to shine, the facades of houses entwined with ivy were whitewashed from below with lime. The occupations of the inhabitants of the city are usual: one of the women knits, two others wash the porch in front of the entrance, the fourth pours water in the back of the yard.
Nature is opposed to this measured course of life. On a gloomy, gloomy day, the weather can change almost every moment. Clouds are quickly sweeping across the sky, rain is about to start to drizzle … But through the non-Riksmuseum, Amsterdam, how many minutes the welcoming sun will again look out. Colors vibrating in the light convey the richness of the surrounding world, delight the eye, and create an elevated mood. The old brick wall literally “breathes” like a living creature. Such visual effects are achieved thanks to a special manner of painting, when the artist, applying light colors with a thin brush, conveys the texture of the stone, the boundaries between the brickwork.
